Sometimes I don't even know why I bother to read the newspaper everyday. Sure, it's good to stay current with what's going on in the world, but honestly, it's just too damn depressing.


Take the tsunami, for example. I liken the tsunami coverage to the September 11 attacks. As devastating and emotionally gut-wrenching it is to watch it, I'm drawn like a moth to a flame. I can't seem to get enough. Why do I even subject myself to such tragedy? I want to know the latest, but at the same time, I'm always left with an unspeakable sadness. I simply cannot fathom the continuing death toll. As of today's paper, the death count in Indonesia is up to 143,000 and rising.


On Mrs. Voodoo's blog, there's this link to all these tsunami clips taken by amateur videographers, mostly tourists on vacation, that eerily captured Mother Nature's wrath. I watched each one in horror. Video after video, it's the same thing- hundreds caught by surprise by the waves, cries of terror, desperate attempts to save the lives of loved ones and themselves, and devastation everywhere. There were a couple that I had to watch a couple of times, to actually see that wall of water rush towards the shore. One video was taken from a hotel room on an upper floor. The outside is beautifully surrounded by plush palm trees when all of a sudden there is confusion everywhere as so many people are swept up by the water. The videographer even takes a closeup shot of a guy hugging a palm tree, holding on for dear life. As if that moment wasn't terrifying enough, the horror continues as the water recedes back into the ocean, taking all the people with it. Even as they desperately tried, they couldn't do a damn thing to save themselves.


My heart goes out to all those killed, injured, and affected. I refuse to even imagine what it would've been like to be in their shoes. I was at Borders the other day and picked up an issue of the latest Time magazine. In it, the pictures speak a thousand words. It's already sad enough that this huge natural disaster happened in the first place, but to have it happen in a third world country, whose main economic source of livelihood is tourism, is like putting salt in a wound. Plus, search & recovery is such a daunting task because many of the places that need the most help are almost impossible for emergency relief forces to get to. The tsunami hit on Dec. 26th. Bodies are continuing to wash ashore. There was a story of a Red Cross worker who stated that he's had enough. Most of the bodies they are now finding are so decomposed and unidentifiable that as they try and recover them, body parts simply separate off the bodies. Even more are being found in the rubble of all the destruction. It all sounds like a terrible B-movie horror flick, but it's straight up reality.


I am deathly afraid of water and there is a good reason for that. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, a whole bunch of my cousins went on a camping trip. I remember everyone splashing around having fun. My uncle, younger cousin, and I went out in a small boat to what I recall as the deep part of the lake. He gave my lil' cousin a small inflatable pillow. He told her to hold it to her chest, jump in the lake, and start kicking her legs. She did so easily and start swimming around the boat. Well, shoot, looks and sound easy enough, right? WRONG! I did as my uncle instructed, but somehow as I jumped into the lake, the inflatable pillow got knocked from my grasp and I remember sinking deeper and deeper as the boat became smaller and smaller. I honestly don't know how long I was under, but that whole experience has traumatized me for life. I will only go into water as long as I can touch and see the bottom...like a swimming pool. Even if I am at the beach, I will only allow myself to wade up to my knees. Oh yah...plus, I've seen Jaws way too many times.



The big "scandal" now is how much monetary aid each country is giving. It's become a competition that just sickens me. But what surprised me was that the amounts that are being spouted out are only "promises" of what each country will give. Of course each country cannot afford to give huge lump sums of millions at one time, but chances are, what ends up being donated is never the full amount as originally promised. Now, other countries who were hit by natural disasters or who are currently facing war, poverty, and starvation are complaining that while they continue to wait for help promised to them earlier, they are afraid that the world's focus has shifted away from them and that they'll never get the necessary funds and supplies. They're probably right. What's the right thing to do here? If only there was a way that all the power countries could help all those in need. If only those with the loot weren't so "stingy" with their money...share the love, peoples. If only there wasn't so much war, poverty, sickness, etc, etc, etc. If only...if only.


How about on the home front. Just here in MN, there have been so many accidents and deaths due to the icy conditions that the winter has brought. The other day, just around the corner from our house as a matter of fact, a father was driving his 3-year to preschool when his car was sudddenly slammed into from behind by an empty schoolbus. Although properly strapped, the child died. Three years old. Another incident involved an 60ish year-old man who had just picked up his wife from a nursing home. Every day he visits her and after lunch, they go for a short drive. They never made it back. Turns out that the car had gotten stuck in the snow and he decided to go for help. He left his wife in the car. As he was walking, he was so overcome by the cold that he collapsed. He died from hypothermia, as his wife did in the car waiting for him.


All of these tragic stories are so sad. The tsunami was absolutely mindblowing. In moments like these, many begin to question God. Why would He allow such devastation? Why would He allow a 3-year old to lose his life? Why would He allow such a major natural disaster to take so many lives? Why is there war? Why is there disease? Why is there this..why is there that? I don't know. There are those who would argue and insist that He wasn't there during any of this. I refuse to believe that. We may not understand and we may question, but we should never lose faith. In the aftermath of all that's happened, we may not think there is anything we can do, but there is. We can definitely donate some money, but more than that, we can offer up our prayers. Don't just pray for those recently killed, don't just pray for the those affected by the tsunami, but pray for all of the people around the world who need it.


Whether or not I open the paper tomorrow or the next day, there will always be something or someone that needs my prayer. Does it matter that I don't personally know the people I am praying for? Absolutely not. Tomorrow's news may bring even more sorrowful tidings of some place or another, but the silver lining of it all is that elsewhere, there are happier moments to rejoice in as well.


Count your blessings ya'll and be thankful for everything and everyone in your life. And don't forget to say your prayers 'cuz prayer is a powerful, powerful thing.